The Poison-Arrow Technology of Our Hunter-Gatherer Ancestors

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In understanding the evolution of humanity, archaeologists are looking back to when our exceptional abilities began. Today, the human ability to make tools to meet our needs is unprecedented in the animal kingdom. But where did our ingenuity begin to set us apart? Inventing spears to enhance our hunting prowess set us apart from other primates – and equipping them with poisoned arrows was next level. A study published today in Scientific advances reports that we have reached the Poison Arrow milestone sooner than previously thought.

The first definitive evidence of poisoned arrowheads came from the mid-Holocene, in an Egyptian tomb dated to about 4,400 years ago and in a South African cave dated to about 6,700 years ago. In both cases, the arrows contained toxic plant compounds, which the study authors consider “a hallmark of advanced hunter-gatherer technology.”

But now, researchers from Stockholm University and the University of Johannesburg have detected traces of natural poison on five of ten arrowheads collected from the Umhlatuzana rock shelter in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In the first direct evidence of the application of poison to Pleistocene hunting weapons, this discovery confirms human use of poisoned arrows by orders of magnitude, around 60,000 years ago.

“Because poison is not a physical force, but works chemically, hunters must also rely on advanced planning, abstraction, and causal reasoning,” the study authors wrote.

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If you think about it, arrowhead poisoning requires connecting several ideas: that arrows can be thrown to kill animals, that some plant compounds are toxic to humans and perhaps animals, and that animals will gradually die from them. The plant compound buphanidrine was found on all five arrowheads, and one of them also carried traces of epibuphanisin, both from the Amaryllidaceae family of flowering plants.

Through a process of deduction, researchers traced the alkaloid compounds to an endemic South African plant, disticha boophone, known locally as “gifbol” (which translates to poison bulb). European explorer Carl Thunberg recorded its application in the 1770s by native hunters of the Cape of Good Hope, southern Africa, to hunt springbok, and today gifbol is recognized in southern Africa as an arrow poison. The milky liquid can be used almost directly from the plant by drying it to a gum-like consistency or heating it over a fire.

The study authors conclude that these Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers made their poison from gifbol root bulb extract, demonstrating knowledge of plant and prey ecology coupled with lethal technical capabilities.

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Main image: maradon 333 / Shutterstock

• Devin Reese

  Published on January 7, 2026

  Devin Reese is the editor-in-chief of Natural history and a science writer based in Alexandria, Virginia.